Latin name of the genus and species: Vaccinium ashei Reade.
Variety denomination: xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99.
Rabbiteye blueberries are native in the southeastern United States. The normal fruit color is black or powdery blue. The first improved rabbiteye cultivars were released in the 1950s. Other cultivars have been released since then, and cultivation of rabbiteye blueberry for the commercial fresh and processed berry markets has become a significant industry in the southeastern United States, in Chile, in Australia and in New Zealand. Several hundred hectares of rabbiteye blueberries have been planted for pick-your-own markets from Florida to North Carolina and west to Texas, and thousands of plants of various rabbiteye blueberry cultivars are sold each year as home landscape and garden plants.
Rabbiteye blueberry breeding began at the University of Florida about 1950, with the goal of developing early-ripening, disease resistant plants that would produce high-quality berries when grown in areas with mild winters. Eight cultivars have been released from this program. In 1984, in a population of 100 seedlings grown from a cross-made in Florida, one seedling appeared whose mature fruit were purple, rather than black or blue, which are the normal colors for rabbiteye blueberries. This plant was subsequently used in a recurrent selection program to develop xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99, which has a bright pink fruit color. Because of the bright, attractive color of the fruit, xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99 has the potential to provide a novel ornamental shrub for fruit production and for landscape planting. The clone could also be used to provide unique and attractive berries for both the fresh and processed blueberry markets. Producers of canned fruit cocktails, who have hitherto avoided blueberries because dark, water-soluble pigments from the skin diffuse into the fruit mix, could use the berries of xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99 to enhance the bright, attractive color of their fruit mixes.
The seed that gave rise to xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99 was obtained by hand pollination in a greenhouse at the University of Florida in Gainesville in March 1994. Both the seed parent (FL94-88) and the pollen parent (FL94-81) were selections developed in the University of Florida blueberry-breeding program. Neither parent is patented and neither has been released as a cultivar. xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99 differs from its parent FL94-88 in having a plant with higher vigor, more resistance to blueberry rust and to Phytophthora root rot, and a smaller berry. By having bright, pink fruit it differs from its parent FL94-81, which has black fruit. xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99 differs from all other released rabbiteye blueberry cultivars because of the unusual color of its mature fruit. The original seedling of xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99 fruited for the first time at The University of Florida Horticultural Unit in Gainesville in May 1996. Because of its attractive berry and vigorous bush, plants were propagated by softwood cuttings to establish a 10-plant field plot and a 20-plant nursery plot of potted plants. Based on the performance of these plants in subsequent seasons, the clone was selected for further propagation and naming in June 2002.
Several hundred plants of xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99 have been asexually propagated by softwood cuttings at the University of Florida, and none of the resulting plants has shown any deviation from the original plant in berry or bush characteristics.
xe2x80x98Florida Rosexe2x80x99 has the following novel combination of characteristics that set it apart from other blueberry cultivars.
a. The ripe fruit is pink on the top side (exposed to full sunlight) and white on the bottom side (not exposed to full sunlight).
b. The berries are large (1.2 to 1.7 g) with good firmness, a small dry picking scar, a sweet flavor, small seeds, and inconspicuous grit cells.
c. The plant has a low chilling requirement, and opens both flower and leaf buds as far south as Gainesville, Fla., even after milder than normal winters.
d. Despite its low chilling requirement, the plant flowers with xe2x80x98Brightwellxe2x80x99 (unpatented), a mid to late-flowering rabbiteye blueberry that seldom suffers from spring frost in Gainesville, Fla.
e. The berry ripens early in the season, with a 50% ripe date of about May 25 in Gainesville, Fla.
f. The plant propagates readily from softwood cuttings and grows vigorously in nursery beds or pots of pine bark.